I don't see a Memorial Day "surge," do you?
Posted on 05/23/2007 1:33:04 PM PDT by libertarianPA
WASHINGTON - The House, eager to do something about record high gasoline prices in advance of the Memorial Day weekend, voted narrowly Wednesday to approve stiff penalties for those found guilty of gasoline price gouging.
The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to go after oil companies, traders or retail operators if they take "unfair advantage" or charge "unconscionably excessive" prices for gasoline and other fuels.
The White House called the measure a form of price controls that could result in fuel shortages. It said President Bush would be urged to veto the legislation should it pass Congress.
The bill needed the approval of two-thirds of the members of the House because the leadership considered it under an expedited legislative process. Thus, the 284-141 vote was only one over the threshold for passage. A similar measure is being considered by the Senate.
The bill would for the first time create a federal law making energy price gouging illegal. It would cover not only gasoline, but also other fuels such as natural gas and heating oil.
Rep. Bart Stupak (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., its chief sponsor, in urging his colleagues to support the bill said the issue was whether "to side with Big Oil (or) ... side with consumers who are being ripped off at the gas pump."
But Stupak was forced to soften the bill so that he could get it passed by requiring a president to first declare an energy emergency before the anti-gouging law could be enforced. Oil-state Democrats had wanted such limits.
The bill calls for criminal penalties of up to $150 million for corporations and up to $2 million and a jail sentence of up to 10 years for individuals found to be engaged in price gouging.
Opponents said the legislation was too vague and amounts to price controls.
"I don't know what `unconscionably excessive' means," Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, complained, referring to a phrase that would trigger a price gouging prosecution.
Barton said today's high gasoline prices are the result of supply and demand and not price gouging. "Demand has gone up and supply has not gone up. ... and the price has gone up," said Barton.
The White House said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill and the president would be urged to veto it if it passes Congress.
It "would harm consumers, the very people the bill is touted to protect," said a White House statement to lawmakers. It said price gouging legislation would amount to "price controls and in some cases bring back long gas lines reminiscent of the 1970s."
Oil company lobbyists have argued that when there are tight markets and rising prices, a vague gouging definition would inhibit refiners and retailers from adding supplies for fear of being taken to court.
"Mom and Pop grocer and gasoline station owners can't wonder what every court is going to decide," said Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., the minority whip. He said the law would create "undue hardship for ... people trying to make a living."
But the bill's supporters argued that states can't combat energy price gouging, leaving motorists at the whim of arbitrary oil company pricing. Twenty-nine states currently have energy price gouging laws, but they vary in detail and under in terms of what conditions would trigger them.
Question: if the oil companies are gouging us and theirs is a commodity we truly depend on, why do they lower prices? Why not just keep them high all the time?
You cannot legislate lower prices. It’s been tried..........
Oddly, gas and oil reserves have been increasing 3 of the last 4 weeks, but prices have surged. This surge happens every year before Memorial Day weekend, but this is worse than usual.
That'll fix everything! ;^)
hush!! Dont give them any ideas.
Isn't this the anniversary of last years Memorial weekend leak????
They gonna do something like lower taxes on it?
Didn’t think so.
I don't see a Memorial Day "surge," do you?
Short term:
1 standard for all gasoline blends sold in the US
Create an environmental fast track program to enable the building of new refineries
Reduce the import duties on Ethanol
Reduce the tax rate on gasoline
Long term:
Create a program where a refinery wishing to build a new plant can apply for a Federal review and bypass any state regulation for the building of the plant.
Open up ANWAR
Limit State control of offshore drilling to 2 miles
Increase funding for development of bio-diesel technology.
Our government is as third world corrupt as the best of them. Completely useless, and probably harmful, action to placate the ignorant.
Finding oil won't lower prices. Pumping it out, refining it and selling it on the market will lower the price. That can happen even if reserves shrink, which it often does. In fact I suspect that the price is usually low when reserves are shrinking and usually high when they grow.
Price controls = shortages. All we need now is a malaise speech and some sweaters.
Because refineries are switching from producing heating oil to gasoline.
Why don’t they just drop the federal taxes for the next four months?
Hey Congress, want to reduce gas prices, why don’t you suspend some of the taxes you take on every gallon of gas. I could be off slightly, but if memory serves me, taxes account for .53 on every gallon.
Dems know that legislation like this will have no effect, it just gives them something to sucker the weak-minded with when election time rolls around. Ditto suing OPEC.
If they really wanted to lower the price of gas they would cut taxes, open up ANWR, expand offshore drilling, or provide tax relief for companies that invest in oil sands. But that would mean gas prices might actually go down, which means consumption would go up, which would violate their global warming orthodoxy. So the solution for Dems is to make a lot of noise and do nothing.
Well no, not in a 27 year chart. Seasonal changes are hard to spot. But why, if the oil companies control prices, would there be such a long trough in this chart? Why didn’t they just keep it going up?
The Federal Motor Fuel excise tax on motor gasoline is $0.184 per gallon. As the price map in this thread shows, the majority of the tax at the pump is state and local tax, in some cases (NY and HI, to name two) hugely so.
True. But they do that every year at this time and prices don’t usually spike 40% in 2 months. This time they say that an unusual amount of refineries are down due to repairs, which may be true, but from what I hear they aren’t in any big hurry to get them back up and running. Price controls aren’t the answer, but more refineries and competition is. There are too few oil companies and refineries in the US.
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